Material-handling apparatus.



A. C. JOHNSTON. y MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.25, 1916.

Patented J 1113710, 1917.

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A. C. JOHNSTON.

MATERIAL HA'NDUNG APPARATUS.

v APPLICATION FILE'D AUG.25, 1916- Patented July 10, 1917.

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Y a citizen of the United is burning, and it is FISE.

ARTHUR. C. JOHNSTON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO LINK-BELT COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

Speccation of Letters Patent.

Patented July io, wir.

Application filed August 25, 1916. Serial No. 116,783.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR C. JOHNSTON, States, residing at in the county of Cook and State ot' Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Material-Handling Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

Coal, as is well known, when in storage deteriorates and chemical action takes place sometimes resulting in spontaneous combustion. The only way in which the fire thus started can be extinguished is by removing the coal and restoring it, and where coal is stored in large quantities, this becomes a very important problem, because of the diiiiculty in getting through the coal which is not burning, so as to get at the coal which for this reason that'coal is ordinarily stored in small isolated unit groups with space between the groups or the entry of the coal handling mechanism.

In my invention I provide means whereby the coal may be stored Vin large units and handled cheaply and conveniently in ordinary conditions, and whereby that part of the coal which in emergency must be removed on account of fire, may be removed with a minimum disturbance of the remainder of the pile.

In my invention I provide means whereby an ordinary type of coal handling crane may in coperation with the usual coal handling and supply machinery pile the coal in a long continuous pile working along the axis of the pile to cover up in the body of the pile the tracks along which the crane travels. This presents no particular problem and when the crane has completed the pile, it is found at one end of the pile ready to start back, uncovering the track along which it is to travel, as the coal is removed.

But other means must be provided to permit access to the pile by this crane at some point intermediate to the ends, and I thereby provide an arrangement whereby the crane, once the pile has been completed, may be permitted to remove such quantities of coal from the central portion of the pile as may become necessary on account of fire or other unexpected conditions.

I have illustrated my apparatus and system more or less diagrammatically as applied to coal storage, but it will of course Chicago,

be evident that any particular arrangement and proportion is not an essential one and that the same general eii'ect might be obtained in some different manner by such modilication of apparatus and arrangement as would fall clearly within the scope oi' my invention. Y

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l, is a plan view.

Fig. 2 is a section through the storage pile showing the stacker and other conveying and controlling mechanism.

Fig. 3 is a section through a pile showing crane and reloading hopper.

Like parts are indicated by like characters in the different figures.

A is a central longitudinal loading crane track. A1 is a similar crane track parallel to the loading track A. A2 are yrailroad tracks. A3 is a conveyer extending across beneath the railroad tracks so that cars on the tracks may discharge into it and it may discharge into the head house A4 where the coal may be treated, weighed or otherwise handled before it is to be stored. A5 is a cross conveyer leading from head house A4 across to discharge material into longitudinal conveyer A6. This longitudinal conveyer is supported on a trestle A60 in the usual manner parallel with crane track A1.

B, is a stacker mechanism adapted to travel along crane track A1. The tripper B1 causes the belt conveyer to discharge on to the conveyer boom B2. This boom B2 may be raised and lowered by any mechanismV not herein shown and is adapted to build one side of the storage pile. The boom is raised and lowered so that the material will not drop violently from a great height but will be eased off on this pile. The stacker is able to build a pile about the shape and size of that marked B3 and shown in dotted lines. 'The stacker B is provided with a hopped B4 into which material discharged by the gripper flows. Some of this material goes on to the stacker boom but most of it is picked out and discharged by the crane about to vbe described.

C,.is a crane adapted to travel along track A having the usual grab bucket C1, the length of the crane arm is such that the grab bucket may pick coal out of the hopper and l from which hopper it may be the crane may be manipulated so as to take up such coal and discharg'e it on the ground to be occupied by the pile so as to build it into the shape shown with its base bounded by the line C2, its crest by the line C3, the area. between (3203 being the slope of the pile; the area inside the line being the fiat top of the pile.

vAs the pile is built up the crane will move back from the head end of the pile toward the tail end. The mechanism is so controlled that recesses on the side of the pile adjacent the crane track A1 are left. These recesses are wide enough to contain an auX- iliary spur track C4, which track communicates with the track A1 and may be permanent or movable as the case may be. The space between these recesses is ysuch that after the crane has built the pile and is located out on that part of the track A extending beyond the pile, it will be free to move along the spur track C5 down the track A1 into one of the side recesses along the spur track C, and then reach in and take out coal from substantially any desired point within the body of the pile. The result is that the operator who wishes to withdraw coal from the body of the pile does not have to dig out the coal from one end ofthe pile down to the point which he wishes to attack. All he has to do is to move his crane into one of the recesses and there attack the pile.

The coal taken out by the crane either as it works back along the track A or as it stands at the end of one of the spur tracks, is discharged into a receiving hopper D, discharged into the chute D1 back into the conveyer A or through a screen D2 and chute D3 into a car D4 or through a chute D5 back into the side wall in a pile. rlhis latter chute, however, is normally used only in connection with the operation of the screen.

The usel and operation of my invention are as follows:

rlfhe coal is fed along the longitudinally built conveyer into the stacker and the stacker builds as much ofthe pile as it can, the crane working along` the central track takes the coal from the stacker or if desired from the pile made by the stacker and distributes it across the entire prism of the pile. The crane and the stacker move grad-V ually longitudinally along the pile until it has been completed.

Under normal commercial conditions the coal is unloaded by reversal of this process, the crane and the reloading tower instead of the stacker work back in unison toward the other end until the pile is all taken away.

However, if the pile should catch on lire some place between its ends or if it became desirable to take out a central portion of the pile, the crane will be taken along the spur track into` one of the said recesses and it will there attack the pile anywhere within the circle drawn about the crane-its radius equal to the radius of the arm of the crane.

lf the fire should be a serious one and rapid action should be Vneeded there might be two or more of the cranes all working in a circle surrounding them as they stood at the ends of the spur tracks. By this arrangement practically all the pile can be removed since smaller quantities of coal outside the area of the circle above referred to can easily be handled by hand or drag line bucket or other lighter, more portable means.

rEhe coal or other material is commonly arranged in two longitudinal piles on opposite sides of a central track from which the coal is deposited and collected by a crane. If to utilize a given floor space, the coal or other such material should be arranged in a pile covering the crane track or the space ultimately left between the two longitudinal piles. The result will be, of course, a pile very much wider than either of the others and wider than both of them together. This arrangement, however, would make it impossible to attack the pile, for any purpose, except at one end, assumingthat the whole available'floor space has been covered by the pile.

rThis is liable to the objection that in order to get at any part of the pile for collecting or removing, it is necessary to first remove all of the coal inthe pile from one end, to the point in question. To obviate this difficulty, while retaining the larger pile arrangement of the coal, l deposit the coal on each side of the middle track by means of a coal depositing apparatus, and l cover the track back of the retreating apparatus. The depositing apparatus is, however, manipulated so as to leave indentations or recesses along one side of the pile, thus to that eX- te'rlit, but not very considerably reducing the p1 e.

Then the pile is finished, if it becomes necessary to attack it at any point, the same depositing means, which now becomes a collecting means, can be applied at the end of the pile, or to twice the effective working radius of the depositing and collecting means, it is obvious that such collecting means can reach any part of the pile. `The arrangement of the pile in this manner, therefore, permits the collecting means, or

l if the means in question is both a collecting and depositing means, to lay a pile the maximum width and then attack it at any point along its length for collectingor removing.

I claim:

l. A material handling apparatus comprising a longitudinally extended material carrying floor, a Vtrack down the middle thereof, a lateral track along one side thereof connected with the middle track outside the lll@ floor area, a series of spur tracks extending approximately from the lateral to the middle track, the distance between such spur tracks being approximately the width of the floor.

2. A material handling apparatus comprising a longitudinally extended material carrying floor, a track down the middle thereof, a lateral track along one side thereof connected with the middle track outside the floor area, a series of spur tracks extending from the lateral inwardly toward the middle track, the inner ends of the spur tracks being normal to the middle track, the distance between such spur tracks being approximately the width of the floor.

3. A material handling apparatus comprising a longitudinally extended material carrying floor, a track down the middle thereof, a lateral track along one side thereof connected with the middle track outside the floor area, a series of spur tracks extending approximately from the lateral to the middle track, the distance between such spur tracks being approximately the width of the floor, and a material handling device adapted to travel on said tracks and with a radius of effective operation approximately equal to one-half of the width of the floor.

4. A material handling apparatus comprising a longitudinally extended material carrying floor, a track down the middle thereof, a lateral track along one side thereo-f connected with the middle track outside the floor area, a series of spur tracks extending approximately from the lateral to the middle track, the distance between such spur tracks being approximately the width of .the floor, and a material handling device adapted to travel on said tracks and with a radius of eifective operation approximately equal to one-half of the width of the oor,

and a material conveyer operative along and at one side of the lioor adapted to deliver material to and receive the same from said material handling device both when the handling device is on the middle track and when it is on the spur tracks.

5. A material handling apparatus comprising a longitudinally extended material carrying floor, a track down the middle thereof, a lateral track along one side thereof connected with the middle track outside the floor area, a series of spur tracks extending approximately from the lateral to the middle track, and approximately at right angles with the middle track, the distance between such vspur tracks being approximately the width of the floor, and a material conveyer operative along and at one side of the floor adapted to deliver material to and receive the same from said material handling device both when the handlingv device is on the middle track and when it is on the spur tracks.

6. A storage floor having a material supporting surface, a road way adapted to support a material handling apparatus extending longitudinally throughout the length of the or along its central line, a lateral roadway adapted to permit the passage of material handling apparatus along one side of the floor entirely outside of the effective material supporting areas a connection between the two roadways and a series of roadways extending inwardly from the lateral roadway toward the central roadway.

In testimony whereof, I aiiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses this 22nd day of August, 1916.

ARTHUR C. JOHNSTON.

Witnesses:

MrNNrE M. LINDENAU, ESTHER VAN FRANK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

